Scientists just stumbled upon five new subatomic particles, helping illuminate some of the most fundamental parts of the universe.

The particles had been "hiding in plain sight", according to one of the researchers that found them.

Researchers working on the Large Hadron Collider, Europe's giant atom-smasher, ran into the special particles while working on the LHCb experiment, also known as "beauty". That experiment is exploring what happened just after the Big Bang that gave birth to the universe.

By measuring their properties, physicists hope to gain greater insight into the strong nuclear force that binds the building blocks of atoms together.